Arsenal make hard work of Preston | Thoughts on Ramsey, Giroud and Mustafi

I was going to write a post yesterday, but I had to make sure I arrived at the airport 6 hours early after missing my flight to London a few weeks back.

Just tuned into the coverage for the FA Cup. Still amazed that pundits ask the question, ‘is it a massive risk for Klopp to rest players?’ Missing the point that you have a big squad to deal with smaller games like FA Cup 3rd Rounders.

It’s not disrespecting the cup, it’s dealing with the horrendous fixture list the Premier League dishes out each year. Also, we’re past the days of second string teams being terrible. The top teams have very good backup players these days. From a managerial perspective, it’s a chance to give some love to the young players, and it’s also a chance for the fringe crowd to make their mark.

I didn’t watch the game, but I took in extended highlights from the excellent Arsenalist.

So topline thoughts:

Result:

We’re through to the next round after a pretty ropey result in the week. Bar a sliced head for Gabriel, we came out of it relatively unscathed, a miracle considering how utterly terrible the team started out. The whole backline looked like they’d been drafted in from a local hockey team for a charity game. No shape, very little understanding and absolute chaos.

The defending for Preston’s opening was utterly car crash, no pressure in midfield, Gabriel falling over himself, Mustafi not quick off the mark, Monreal asleep at the wheel. Let’s be fair, that wasn’t Preston’s best chance, we made them look like kings for the opening 45. I’m hoping that the issue with Mustafi is just rustiness… my worry after a second awful game from him is that the first half of the season was predicated on flying confidence. He needs to get his shit together ASAP.

The second half was better, we found our feet, started to find Giroud and we opened on a flyer. Aaron Ramsey scored his first of the year. Iwobi picked up some scraps on the edge of the area, put on a Wiltord pirouette, jinking between jabbing legs, he found Aaron on the edge of the box, the Welshman crafted some space and let a low backlift rocket off into the top right. A lovely finish, much needed after picking up a lot of critique in the week.

The second came from, who else? Goal machine Olivier Giroud. He’d been causing problems with his bully boy antics and good runs, his reward came from a delightful Lucas Perez backheel into his path, he obliged and scuffed it into the back of the net. An aggressive, slightly less carry-on celebration. Another very important goal, you feel he’s slowly clawing back some lost love points after his horrendous run of nothing last season. Amazing what a bit of competition can do to focus the mind.

Keeper:

I only took in the highlights, so I can’t be sure this was a thing… but the looping crosses into the box felt tactical with Preston knowing our South American is not the best at dominating his box. Worth noting as we possibly swing into promotion / replacement time for the out of sorts Petr Cech.

#10:

Let’s never see Rambo at 10 again. It’s clear back-up in that position moving forward is Iwobi. He might make poor decisions, he might not always have the confidence we’d like, but he made some great contributions yesterday and he looks far more natural in that role than he does on the right or left.

#RamseyOut

Hold your horses people. Let’s see how he’s looking alongside Xhaka by the time Coquelin comes back into contention. The way I see it, Aaron dropped a superstar season a few years back, he was on the path to Gareth Bale like stardom. Then it all went to shit, but his head was still in the clouds dreaming of a fry-up in an Irish bar in Madrid. That’s been reflected in his play, playing the all action hero, thinking about himself a lot, not doing his job properly.

… and that has to stop. He has to remember he doesn’t have pedigree at elite levels right now. He has to earn that rep back. He won’t do that in the role he has for Wales, but he might do it next to Xhaka. Yesterday he scored a goal, floated the ball to Perez for his late assist. It’s minimal, but look, he has to build himself up again. I’d like to see what he can do. If it doesn’t work out, see ya later. If it does, and he can stay fit, we have a powerful player on out hands.

Yesterday will have worked his confidence the right way. Let’s see if he can take something incremental from that game and make it happen more often. Last chance saloon for him, but a good start.

Right, that’s it, onwards and upwards. A week off and Swansea up next, another new manager to play.

364 Responses to “Arsenal make hard work of Preston | Thoughts on Ramsey, Giroud and Mustafi”

Bati I think Mustafi has answered your questions, bare having a Messi, Ronaldo type player in your side and solid players in the squad, luck has helped a lot of side win the CL. Not excusing our recent terrible run. Cup games are quite a touch of brilliance, hard work and some form of luck. Greece, Portugal ….winning Euros?

Whatever you say doesn’t matter even if the facts prove you right. The AKB’S are a cult that make the scientologists look like a girl guide group. They take excuses to another level the latest one being well so and so didn’t get a result their so it’s ok that we didn’t either. These people are greasier than any politician and just as full of shit as them too

Right, Son just scored for Spurs, his movement for the goal is the type of movement that we are not seeing from our froward line. How many times has Monreal gotten behind the defence and not found a player with a ball? Our forward line are so static during the the game. If you look at Barca their movement is breathtaking, always pulling players around the pitch and creating space. Something our boys should be doing but aren’t.

A mate of mine at work a bin dipper fan told me at start of season he fancied us to really go for the title this year. I told him no chance and explained to him exactly how season would pan out. He said to me the other day that I was spot on and should play the lottery. I told him the lotteries hard but figuring out Arsenal was easy as they’re an open book. In fact I was so confident Liverpool would finish above us I bet him 50 quid. Looks like I’ll be coming up trumps seasons end

“…, but his head was still in the clouds dreaming of a fry-up in an Irish bar in Madrid. That’s been reflected in his play, playing the all action hero, thinking about himself a lot, not doing his job properly.”.

Would a few years of this dreaming not enough to rid of him? Do we still take a decade to rid of journeymen? Is OX still waiting for a donor brain for transplant? Sanogo waiting for a pair of legs and feet?

Jim,
I’m not trying to evoke negative feelings here but Spuds caught up with us four years ago when we piped them for fourth and celebrated like we just won the CL.

They showed their best hand the moment they signed one the best young managers on the planet. A few years from now their stadium will boost their purse and reputation. They will soon be London’s glitzy and swank club with all that vibe.
They have found a way to compete with us with a lot less.

I really think that will all things staying the same; unambitious Kroenke, stale Wenger and pretentious Gazidis, they will creep past us.

I won’t argue with you there, the stagnation at Arsenal has been criminal. All this talk of the move from Highbury being a jumping point to propel us into the elite of world football, and it just hasn’t happen, we have fallen so far behind since the move.

I feel that Spurs will do with their new stadium what we should have been able to do with ours.

Also on a separate note 60,000 was too small for Arsenal, should have been 80,000.

Jim made a good point about the players who lack the nous to get in the box when there’s a pull back cross like Son’s goal. How many times have I wondered who should be running behind Giroud or who ever …..Ozil is a culprit. Ramsey seems to thrive in making does runs but most often, no one makes those run in. Perez seems to be the guy doing it and I think Walcott sometimes….but we need more of that done in games

Yeah not just the movement in the box but our frontline in general are so static. We play this crab football seemingly for no reason, its not pulling teams apart its doing the opposite, it seems to be giving teams an opportunity to get organised.

When we were at our best was when we were a counter attacking side, teams were terrified to come out and play against us.

Chelsea spent over a billion dollars to get to the champions league final and they lucked on it with Dimateo. They got to the final with Avram grant too.

Fans forget players get you there. I still wonder how they want the everyday shitty labelled players we have to get us there, when you know they wont. Sometimes, i think we expect more from them and when they let us down, we label them as shit.

Players help, liverpool under 23 couldnt win a league 2 side today. Klopp had to call the calvary, by then it was too late. I wonder how many people saw that game? Or they are pretending they didnt.

P.s. People calling for Wilshere would be disappionted. The pressure he faces against opposition is going to be way higher when he plays for arsenal. He is better there. Teams prepare 110percent when they meet a tougher opponent than when they play minnows.

MM….I am reminded of a simple yet true statement when you come to mind. Never argue with an idiot, they will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience. To that end, you are beyond hope and likely have been a nasty piece of work from the first time you got throttled for being a misery.

Bournemouth is his level. He hasnt scored (which is overlooked because he plays for a poor side), he has very poor defensive stats and when bournemouth loses a game, it wont be because he wasnt good enough, it would be because the whole team is average. At arsenal, higher pressure, better tactics he is going to face when we play against solidly prepared teams, his wobbling legs would be targeted.

If Ramsey was playing for southamptom for instance he would be king. People should learn from players like Benteke. Joe allen, Defoe etc

See what I mean, right on cue someone turns up with the ‘ well Liverpool didn’t win today excuse’……

Who gives a royal fuck about Liverpool Chelsea, city or anyone other than Arsenal. So next season when we don’t win title under wenger we can use the ‘ well Sunderland haven’t won it in a while’ excuse. Excuses excuses excuses excuses excuses zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Fuck me wenger’s dumbed down fan expectations so much we’ll cling to any excuse no matter how pathetic.

@Ugh – “People calling for Wilshere would be disappionted. The pressure he faces against opposition is going to be way higher when he plays for arsenal. He is better there. ”

For once I agree with you, Wilshere has found his level and looks a better player for it, people want him back forget how ineffective he was when he played for us.

Regarding your comments on the champions league, I’m not entirely sure what you meant? If it was that our players are not good enough to win it so we shouldn’t expect it, then yeah absolutely i don’t expect us to win it. But the blame for not having the players capable of winning it rests at Wenger’s feet.

Teams that spend big win, its simple the teams that have spent the most in England have won the league the most and I am sure the same can be said for the majority of the leagues in Europe. However, you don’t need to be top spenders to compete, and we have not been competitive for so long due to, in my view, poor management.

First it was ref conspiracy, then FFP then oil money but that was blown out the water by Leicesters victory last season. Now the excuses are, well palace haven’t won the league for a while. But then I suppose I am being unfair to wenger as how are we supposed to compete with Leicesters crisp money

Thats is very true, I remember during the Wenger glory years when I was a full on AKB, it was everyone else’s fault but Wenger’s.. I blamed the refs, Fergie and United for being cheating cunts, the players …. But maybe it was Wenger even back then.

Do you remember when we lost the league when Leeds beat us? Was it 2003? Was that early signs of the bottling to come?

Spot on Redruth. A vivas fuck up. In all honesty even with his fuck up we should of beaten Leeds. But a wenger team bottling it is not unusual. Who can remember losing to galatasaray. Shocking performance.

Even if wenger spent a billion I still wouldn’t fancy our chances. He’d buy Messi and play him in goal just to show what a genius he is. As cloughie said footballs a simple game. Problem is wenger tries to be too clever for his own good.

Out of 20 years only Lauren and Henry have come off. The rest of the time it’s round hole square pegs to try and show how clever he is. If you buy a striker play him as a striker, if you buy a winger play him as a winger. Stop trying to be a smart alec

He’s not spoiling it mate. Come on, his arguments are easy enough to undermine stop working yourself up. I agree with most of what you say and nothing of what he says but he doesn’t deserve to be binned. Just laugh at them.

Wenger is finished as a manager at the top level. This was obvious years ago; now it’s not even a discussion.

He has had plenty of time and plenty of money. He hasn’t even managed to compete for a title much less win one.

Doesn’t do tactics well enough, doesn’t develop players well enough, doesn’t motivate players well enough, and doesn’t have a good enough eye for what the team needs to compete and which players might bring this to the team.

Yes they had a lot of luck, don’t forget Gerrard’s screamer of a goal at the death against olympiakos in group stages. But even so if we had all the luck going for us the master bottler would find a way to throw the game

One thing I will point out, now I don’t want to generalise, but it seems that the posters who tend to be more sympathetic of Wenger an his cause are the ones who live the furthest away from the club. The guys in the States and in Nigeria. Now I AM NOT saying that these guys are any less of supporters for this, the guys in the States have to get up at ridiculous times to watch us play and you can’t question the passion from the supporters in Africa. However they do seem to be a lot more willing to put up with the mediocrity that has engulfed the club in recent years.

When I was living in London I was lucky to get to 8-10 games last season, and as anyone who goes to watch Arsenal play knows, its not cheap, I mean.. I remember paying £90+ for a cat A game.. When you’re paying so much to watch players who at times look like they don’t give a shit its beyond infuriating.

Has anyone read Ozil’s quotes in the papers this evening about wanting to stay if wenger does? Being half Cypriot let me translate it for you because you might not get it 😀

The fact that a big club hasn’t contacted my agent or come in for me means I’m very happy to stay at Arsenal in the hope that I can go missing again in the majority of the big games when Arsenal need me most. At no other club would they pay me the same to wander aimlessly on the pitch before delivering a scintillating 3 yard pass to my teammate and have fans drooling over it.

”
RedtruthJanuary 8, 2017 17:30:39
If i was the owner i’d terminate Wenger’s contract and install Bould as interim manager until the end of the season before appointing Bielsa on a 3 year lucrative deal.”

Hahahahahahaha I won’t lie I used to be a huge Ozil fan. Followed his career from youth to Madrid and was so fucking happy we signed him. But no more. He’s a bottler of massive proportions. He’s had long enough now to have settled in so no excuse. Far far far to often when we need him he goes missing.

Well done Plymouth, the media love loserpool as much as I hate them, must be my generation. On the article Michael Owen ( get the mascot off the pitch was the chant at anfield) is a total bore, I do rate Mcmanaman though, Mark Lawranson is useless and boring.
As for us, think we need a reality check, dress it up anyway you like, we ain’t winning the league until…..

@GKeep up mate it was 1999. True fan you are eh. Let me guess, started supporting Arsenal late 90’s. You do know that the name Arsenal didn’t come about because of wenger’s name don’t you?

Sorry TYGN..I was sure we did the double in 2004..must have been a dream
And your guess was a load of shit cause been supporting arsenal since 1978 when we lost to Ipswich..a few years before AW took over

I watched the draw against Bournemouth and after the game someone mentioned that it was only 8 years ago that Bournemouth was 91out of 92 team’s in England , can someone please tell me how can a team from so far down the divisions 8 years ago can now give the mighty arsenal such a difficult game? . When you consider that a lose to Barcelona in a champions league final made arsenal the second best team in Europe and I am sure that most sensible fans would agree that Barcelona are always there or there about at the latter stages of the champions league final, I also recall not so long ago Mr Wenger made mention of the likes of spurs , West ham and Everton are catching up in regards to the improvement in their football ,so please forgive me for saying that in my opinion arsenal have not improved but gone backwards and Mr Wenger’s failure to buy better quality players has allowed other clubs just outside the top 4 to get that much closer , because any team with aspirations of becoming the best always sets higher standards that others follow.

“When you consider that a lose to Barcelona in a champions league final made arsenal the second best team in Europe and I am sure that most sensible fans would agree that Barcelona are always there or there about at the latter stages of the champions league final, I also recall not so long ago Mr Wenger made mention of the likes of spurs , West ham and Everton are catching up in regards to the improvement in their football ,so please forgive me for saying that in my opinion arsenal have not improved but gone backwards and Mr Wenger’s failure to buy better quality players has allowed other clubs just outside the top 4 to get that much closer , because any team with aspirations of becoming the best always sets higher standards that others follow.”

Interested to see what those comments do for Ozil, he’s always been a player who attracts criticism for many of his performances, but this year has felt like that has really peaked, a lot of Arsenal fans have turned on Ozil in a big way as a ‘Wenger player,’ sort of pretty, good when it doesn’t matter, invisible when it does.

With the Arsenal fan base basically split in half over Wenger, interesting to see what the half that want Wenger gone make of Ozil’s comments.

In my personal opinion if Wenger leaving leads to Ozil leaving I will book him a taxi to the airport, Ozil has not lit it up for us, he has not taken us to the next level and as I said a few weeks ago, I think he’s become Wenger’s philosophy and football approach embodied, for some reason Ozil and Wenger signing on together would just mean total resignation to complete non-progression over the next two years.

Really hard to know whether this is a delaying tactic from Ozil, whether he doesn’t want to seem like he is just trying to get maximum money, whether he’s trying to justify an exit and not look bad, or whether he really means it.

If he means it, I would gladly see the back of him if it meant he was walking shoulder to shoulder with Wenger, he has not been that good for us at all and actually has further hindered a manager who struggles with tactics and delivering a balanced eleven by being such an unbalanced player who absolutely must play in one position.

Cesc Appeal,
In psychological terms the Wenger-Ozil relationship is akin to the permissive parent-child relationship.
The permissive parent is too quick to respond to every whim of the child and does not demand much from that child. They don’t set limits on behaviors and over-indulge.
Ozil is really Wenger’s pup. In exchange for success he will get comfort with no real expectations.

Wenger, when asked about the possibility of renewing of Özil’s and Sánchez’s contracts beyond 2018, said last month that “every club loses big players” and that no individual is bigger than Arsenal. He said: “Arsenal is a big club. It is not one or two players who will make the difference. The important thing is we are in a strong financial position; that was not the case before [when the club changed stadiums].

“We are in a financial position where we can plan our future and do what we want to do. And what is important is always to take care of the values of the club, and the identity of the club, and not to depend too much on one or two players.”

That must be a big part of it, there is not a manager in Europe of a top club that would indulge Ozil the way Wenger does.

I’ve always said Ozil is far more likely to sign on than Sanchez, for Ozil earning £200 000 a week in a team where he doesn’t have to do anything he does not want to, is revered by the fans as being too good for the club and does not actually have to achieve anything is a pretty sweet deal, I think it would be for most anyone.

Sanchez is different, it is not just about money and he does not mind pressure and expectation, he does not mind shouldering the team and he does not mind dirty work, but he’s reward has to be trophies, that’s what motivates him.

Yeah, lets remember as well, it was not as if Ozil had a host of clubs bidding for him and Wenger made all the difference, I remember people at United coming out and saying they were not even aware he was for sale until the deal with Arsenal was already done.

Madrid needed money to fund the Bale deal and their other transfers, Ozil was shoved out of the door, Wenger had been his usual stubborn self all summer having brought in only Flamini and Sanogo on frees and lost opening day at home to Villa 3-1 meaning we offered Madrid whatever they wanted basically. That was the equation that brought Ozil here, since then, no one has banged down our door to get him the way teams are trying now sniffing Sanchez’s unhappiness, to say Wenger was the pulling factor when there really were not that many options in the context of his sale, and now that he’s some sort of anchoring factor when Ozil has not been a sought after player since smacks of some sort of agenda.

Ozil had no choice of where to go because Madrid had to raise money for the Bale transfer. He didn’t come over to us because of some brilliantly hatched plan from Wenger.
It was purely desperation
First we went for Higuaín and ditched it because we thought Suarez was gettable [we were also outbid]. Had this succeeded – No Ozil
Then we went for Suarez [story’s been told too many times] . Had we succeeded – No Ozil
Ozil was the result of an embarrassing opening home game loss to Villa and pressure from the boss. Wenger might have helped to sooth his anxiety coming from Madrid but where else was he going to go. There wasn’t time for a full blown bidding war.

I don’t know whether no top club would have wanted Ozil back when we signed him, I imagine they would have, I’m just saying the way the transfer went down he did not have a lot of options.

For him to come out and say Wenger is the reason he selected to go to Arsenal as if he had a list as long as your arm of clubs of equal stature bidding that sort of money for him that late in the day with that little notice, it is a little naughty.

No man is greater than the club. I find it interesting that Özil has one out and said his stay depends on Wenger staying… why? Any manager coming in I think is going to be starting him (unless he’s horribly out of form or injured) so why does he care?

Am I missing something?

Worse case scenario?

Wenger signs a 4 year extension but Sanchez and Özil decide to go this summer anyway. Arsenal PR machine then go into overdrive to hail the Wenger extension as our most important signing. No doubt on improved terms despite Wenger saying it shouldn’t be always about money. Of course.

@Cesc
Exactly. It happened at last minute as spuds kept Madrid waiting on bale by time he signed there was less than 48 hrs to complete it. Although it’s telling that Ancelloti said at the time that it was between angel di Maria and Ozil and he went for the big game player. He was proved right because that season di Maria won them the decima

Cesc
There were few clubs that could have afforded the wages and transfer fees for Ozil on SHORT NOTICE.
PSG considered Ozil but were hampered by FFP
We hadn’t spent all summer and there was already unrest in the club after a dismal summer of misses.

If Sanchez and Ōzil don’t sign an extension it will be a big blow to Wenger personally and our club’s status will be lowered again… and it will be another rebuilding job for the next five to eight years…

TYAGN
Madrid left the decision to the manager and Ancelotti took his time until very late. They went on a pre-season tour of the states and he gave everyone a chance to prove themselves.

Had Ancelotti chose Ozil we would probably have gotten Di Maria.
Ozil was just the apple that fell from the tree. Wenger would have gotten anyone that fell off Madrid.
Ozil is not the result of some persistent strategy. Wenger doesn’t do deliberate planning. He’s all about reacting to the market; he waits for all the big teams to take the first bites, then he swoops in like a hyena to snap up the left-overs.

Of course Ozil wants Wenger to stay, he’s one of the few managers on Earth that still has a real use for a all-attack, doesn’t give a shit about defense player. He’s the perfect Wenger midfielder, that will be the star of the show in Wenger’s JFRAAB Redknappesque setup, and a bit-part player in basically every other club out there.